How to Create Your Social Media Marketing Plan
Social media marketing is all the rage in the business and blogging world. Thus, you want to be ready to use it and do so effectively. Never before has there been an opportunity to reach such large audiences for little to no money. For a small business or up and coming blog, there is no better opportunity available.
Before you get started, it’s important that you have a plan ready. This will help you measure what you need, what you hope to get and how you can achieve your social media goals.
Your Social Media Options
While most large corporations try to have a face on every platform, it doesn’t mean it’s your best idea. Being relevant on multiple social platforms doesn’t make your social media efforts successful. In fact, it could hurt you rather than help. Customers can detect when your presence isn’t genuine, and that is not good for your business image.
Here are a few you should consider:
- Facebook- With over 800 billion users and growing, you know that you’ll find customers waiting to engage. It’s important with Facebook that you are actively engaging in order to see progress.
- Twitter- Twitter has quickly become the place to be. The first to break headlining news more often than not, businesses want to be involved. This is a great way to see what your customers are talking about, looking for and interested in.
- Pinterest- This unique social network reaches mostly women. As a business with a female-centric target audience, you couldn’t find a more engaging platform.
Plan To Be Committed
The most important aspect of any social media strategy is to be willing to spend the time on it. Social media isn’t about a one and done deal. Once you’ve signed up, you’ve only just begun. Customers want to talk to you, and expect to see fresh, updated content regularly.
- Carve out the time to work on your social media outlets. Take an hour every day to be present and communicate with your fans, followers and potential customers.
- If you can’t do this, hire a social media consultant to do so. This is what will make your efforts successful, and it’s important to your customers.
Give Your Customers What They Want
While staying current is important, customers hope to gain from being a loyal customer. If not for your customers, be generous for yourself. Offer discounts and social media only deals to get consumers interested and connected.
- Be Exclusive: Your users want to feel like they are getting something special, something that just any customer wouldn’t. Offer Facebook and Twitter only coupons or discounts. Give your customers a reason to jump in your bandwagon.
- Engage: Talk to your customers. Answer their questions, suggest interesting content that brings value to them, give them insider information, etc. When your customer sees you as human, they can connect on a different level.
Being involved in social media takes time, energy and a desire to make it work. However, it’s important that you carve out time in your schedule to do that. Creating a social media marketing plan will help you stay on course and remember your end goal: make the customer happy and see results.
About the Author
Jessica Sanders writes articles for the small startup, Chonies, giving small business, fashion business, marketing and SEO advice.
Tagged with: marketing • Small Business • social media • social media marketing • social media strategy
Filed under: Social Media
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Its our nature the feeling of always especial. So to get customers heart, making them comfortable and special it added points to you. And one way of dealing is talking in such a very personal manner.
Joseph Mills´s last [type] ..The gold price and the Euro & US dollar
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I think the most important aspect of social media is that you need to benchmark, test and verify the results. Most people probably don’t know how good social media can be for their business, and many don’t realize how effective social media is.
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Twitter: Galaxy_LoL
says:
I think the hard part is becoming social and finding customers. In my experience, maintaining the relationship with costumers is only effective if our costumers is really interested in what we supply.
jame´s last [type] ..The Darkest Hour (2011) BRRip
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Re: the first advice, being in multiple social media doesn’t ensure success in your efforts. Choose only what you need and serves your purpose. Brilliant advice!
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Twitter: GeraldNitram
says:
Since you mentioned “social media,” would you add LinkedIn in the mix? I mean, I see as more of a professional network rather than your typical social networking site, but there’s still a chance that you’ll be able to find people there who will need your products and services. Another thing: just like what you mentioned in that part about Facebook, you should converse with other people. I think that’s the most basic and effective use of a social networking site.
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How about blogs? They’re very important and should also be included in any marketing plan. Networking with leading bloggers in your industry is very important. On a side note, I didn’t know that Pinterest has an audience of mostly women. That is very interesting. Thanks for the great article!
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Twitter: howtospecialist
says:
From my own experience, creating accounts on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest is not enough to get orders. On the contrary, we need to post regularly and create a close relationship with every follower or friend. In addition, I consider that it is better to post quality posts rather than a high volume. Therefore, I strive to use my creativity and to differentiate from my competitors any time I use the social media networks.
Jack Sander´s last [type] ..Wood fired pizza oven plans
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For a business, social media also serves a great way to feel the pulse of what the customer wants and needs are. That is where a huge disconnect occurs in big organizations. Only people at the front end communicate with the customers, and decision makers frequently make decisions in a vacuum.
Regardless of whether you hire a social media consultant for handling social media for business (which is often required given the competing demands for time for any business owner), I think it is still a good habit for any business person to spend some time every week communicating with customers and getting to know what their needs and concerns are and then fulfilling those needs through your products and services. That is how your business becomes relevant to your customers.
Yula Martel
yula martel @ yoga mat´s last [type] ..03rd Apr 2012 – Selecting Affordable, High-Quality Yoga Mat Bags
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Social media are powerful tools nowadays for your online business or your blog to really make it to the top. Many people are obsessed with FB and Twitter!
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Social Media’s popularity is continuously rising so any business not engaging in it is really missing quite a lot. Each social media platform has to be utilized differently for the campaigns to be effective. And most importantly, keep the human connection.
Reese´s last [type] ..How to Build Credit for Students
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thanks for the great tips. Social Media certainly is getting bigger and bigger, you must develop a strategy now in order to stay up witht he changing times.
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Twitter: stevenpapas
says:
My favorite tip of this article is to be relevant. The thing about blogging is there are so many ways to market, but you have to remember to whom you are marketing. If you try to cover everything you will either run out of time or money so don’t waste either of those resources. You need to know who your audience is and target them.
Steven Papas´s last [type] ..Webhosting Plans
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With the passage of time social media influence and importance increasing rapidly therefore your social media marketing plan should be unique, effective and result oriented. Your all points are very effective to launch an effective marketing plan.
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I love the idea of pinterest for my business, but I don’t really know how to leverage it. Do you just post a bunch of pictures and hope? I’d love any help.
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Twitter: meltingposts
says:
Social media is a great tools these-days to make your online business or blog popular. But just sharing links on FB and Twitter is not enough, engaging and recommending stuff is just as important.
Aliosha Kasin´s last [type] ..What Would Facebook Look Like In The 90′s
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Twitter: sweetbga
says:
The thing about blogging is there are so many ways to market, but you have to remember to whom you are marketing. I strive to use my creativity and to differentiate from my competitors any time I use the social media networks.
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Twitter: truthgalore
says:
Pinterest is pretty new to me. I’m familiar with Twitter and Facebook but Pinterest…visited the site just a couple times.
Sean Mal@ebid instead of ebay´s last [type] ..How To Increase Your Online Sales By At Least 40%
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The social media can prove great results but it requires equal caution to manage your appearance. When Social Media Marketing plays an important role in bringing leads and making a brand identification it becomes important to plan your campaign.
Jeremy@online sports betting´s last [type] ..seaniemac
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Twitter: ultimatesociali
says:
Hi Jessica,
Great, it is so important to use social media, think a lot of people don’t use it correctly and then think because of this and no results, that it’s not worth it.
I believe if you work at it you can reach your goals with social media.
Thanks
Joe Elliott
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The best way to look at social media is to view it as one of many Internet marketing channels, one that has the amazing power to go viral. In the very least, it has the awesome ability to engage your audience in meaningful conversations about your product, issue areas, company, and brand.
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Making people see in your product exactly what they need is a real art of marketing. Being exclusive is really important, I agree.
Mary@Healthy Trim´s last [type] ..Healthy Trim Reviews – What User’s Really Experienced
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Twitter: bestcarpetman
says:
I have a slow but steadily growing work Facebook which is definitely a plus as far as networking and SEO I find It just is really hard to ask clients to please like there local carpet cleaner as they know that all it’s for is advertising when most just like to chit chat with there friends and brag and stuff. But I do try.
Bill @ Orange County carpet cleaning´s last [type] ..Spring Time Carpet Cleaning
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Most people probably don’t know how good social media can be for their business, and many don’t realize how effective social media is.
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Well said.
It’s one of the best platforms to build relationships and establish trust. That is the premise for a long term successful business.
When done right, it’s one of the fastest ways to build an army of loyal fans.
Great stuff.
Thanks!
Sean@Social Media Explained´s last [type] ..Internet Marketing Business Plan
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Twitter: amar_aaleemyahoo.com
says:
Hi
I agree from this fact that social media is ongoing process once we start it we have to continue it and have to remain update. Thanks.
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I believe that social media marketing is really content marketing. Posting things on social sites is relatively easy, creating content that people want to talk about can be difficult. A good plan is critical.
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Customer centricity should always be contained in every core values of each enterprise. Online marketing is not exempted from it thus online content should give the best experience to them. Content should be helpful by itself.
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Plans will always be plans. But sometimes, it should be flexible enough to cope with the ever dynamic online market. Some strategies may not be anymore applicable in a given time thus plan B should be prepared as well.
Jason Homes @ MLS MN´s last [type] ..Why Do Homes Go Into Foreclosure?
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